Deals

ITE, one of the world’s leading organisers of international exhibitions and conferences, today announces that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the business and assets relating to Mining Indaba from Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc (“Euromoney”) for £30.1 million, on a cash-free, debt-free basis and subject to normalised working capital (the “Acquisition”).

Mining Indaba is the leading event dedicated to bringing together mining and investment experts in order to develop mining interests in Africa. Every year it attracts key participants in the African mining value chain, including industry leaders, investors and government representatives to Cape Town, South Africa. Founded in 1995, Mining Indaba held its 24th edition in February 2018.

The Acquisition is in line with ITE’s product-led strategy to create the world’s leading portfolio of content-driven, must-attend events delivering an outstanding experience and ROI for their customers. Mining Indaba is a market-leading event in the mining industry, which has consistently been at the forefront of the international mining sector. The next event is scheduled for 4-7 February 2019.

ITE also manages Africa Oil Week (AOW) in Cape Town, which is also the market-leading event for the energy industry and we believe there are opportunities in terms of customer base, associations, ministries across Africa and both could benefit from operating together. AOW is benefiting from the TAG programme and sales are currently tracking significantly ahead of this time last year.

In the year to 28 February 2018, which encompasses the 2018 event, Mining Indaba generated sales of £7.2 million and EBITDA of £3.7 million. As at 28 February 2018, Mining Indaba had gross assets excluding cash of £0.6 million. An initial cash consideration of £20.0 million will be paid on completion, with deferred cash consideration of £10.1 million to be paid in June 2019. The Acquisition will be funded from a combination of ITE’s existing cash resources and bank borrowing.

The Group expects to realise operational synergies and to strengthen its presence in the natural resources end-market given its existing ownership of AOW.The transaction is expected to be earnings enhancing in its first full year of ownership and deliver ROIC greater than WACC within 3 years.

ITE also believes that there is an opportunity to bring the benefits of its TAG programme to this event by treating the Mining Indaba business as Core and giving it the investment, management focus and international platform needed to grow.It is anticipated that the Acquisition will complete by the end of October 2018.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mark Shashoua, Chief Executive Officer of ITE, said:“We are delighted to be able to add Mining Indaba, another well-regarded must-attend event, to our portfolio. This acquisition is consistent with our stated strategy of making disciplined and value-enhancing acquisitions of market-leading events and Mining Indaba is also highly complementary to our AOW exhibition. We believe the acquisition will deliver value for our shareholders and consolidate our position as an organiser of must-attend international industry events.”

Around 60% of suppliers to the UK’s event industry are facing collapse within three months unless event businesses receive further support from the government. Of those businesses, 6% said they are unlikely to make it to the end of April.